Former QPR boss Marti Cifuentes in line for Leicester City job following big Gary O'Neil development | OneFootball

Leicester City appear to be narrowing down their drawn-out manager saga

Former QPR boss Marti Cifuentes has emerged as a “strong contender” to fill the current Leicester City vacancy.

That’s according to The Telegraph journalist John Percy, who confirmed the Foxes’ interest in the coach via his X account on Tuesday evening.

Both Gary O’Neil and Chris Wilder were believed to be names under consideration, before Football League World exclusively revealed that the former had dropped out of the race.

Cifuentes officially departed Loftus Road towards the end of last month by mutual consent, having been placed on gardening leave after the final home game of the season.

Marti Cifuentes a "strong contender" to take over at Leicester City

The Foxes are on the hunt for a new boss following the departure of Ruud van Nistelrooy.

It was revealed by Percy that interviews with O’Neil and Wilder had already taken place in London last week, with other candidates spoken to.

However, Cifuentes was a new name in the battle for the job when Percy announced him as a “strong contender” on Tuesday evening.

In the journalist’s original report, he stated that the Foxes hope to appoint a new boss later this week.

Appointing Marti Cifuentes would bring plenty of intrigue at Leicester City

Despite departing QPR at the end of last season, Cifuentes left with his reputation still relatively intact.

When the BBC compiled fan opinion on the Catalan coach after he was placed on gardening leave in April, few were critical of him.

Instead, most fans’ ire was reserved for those above him at Loftus Road, with some remarking that it’s difficult to tell who’s more at fault without being behind the scenes.

It would be interesting to see what Cifuentes is capable of with a more forgiving budget, as will surely be on offer with the Foxes thanks to their parachute payments.

But Leicester have equally not been commended as the goal standard for board-level decision making in football in recent years, so some may fear Cifuentes is stepping into another thankless task.

Leicester City's handling of Van Nistelrooy departure raises some questions

Leicester’s last game of the 2024/25 season was on 25 May, having known of their demotion for just under a month at that point.

One of the few benefits of an early relegation is that the club know which league they’ll be in, and can start working on plans and budgets for the task ahead.

Despite that, it took until the end of June for the Foxes to confirm Van Nistelrooy’s departure, which was protracted as an earlier sacking would have affected the club's PSR accounts.

We’re now closing in on the middle of July, Leicester have played their first pre-season game of the new campaign against Peterborough United, and we still don’t know who’s going to be taking charge of the club next season.

It feels like an unnecessary delay at this point in the season, and will no doubt have already impacted on-pitch recruitment with the uncertain picture in the dugout.